A Medieval Scotsman!  Woo hoo! 

BRIDGE THROUGH THE MIST
Denise A. Agnew
Available now at Ellora’s Cave www.ellorascave.com

When Alenna Carstairs is hurled through time into 1318, Scotland’s medieval world brings her face to face with hot, sexy Tynan of  MacBrahin. Infuriated with his barbaric manners, and yet sensing
vulnerability within him, she vows to discover the heartbreak that has scarred his soul.
World-weary knight, Tynan of MacBrahin lost two loves to the brutality  of other men. He can’t forgive himself for failing to protect the women who depended on him. When Alenna saves his life, her independent spirit  stirs desires so strong within him he can’t resist her. A depraved baron soon wants Alenna for his own, and Tynan must find a way to conquer this  powerful man to save her.

Alenna struggles with soul-staggering desire for Tynan, but most of all, she must convince Tynan his love is not lethal, and she is the one who can bring shine to his armor again.

Buy it here!

“Recommended Read! There is one word to describe Bridge Through the
Mist…sensational…”
Fallen Angel Reviews

“Four hearts…an exceptional tale of medieval times…The sexual
tension between these two characters was scorching…I highly recommend
this to anyone looking for a lot of action, sizzling passion and a
battle of wills that will keep the reader completely engrossed to the
very last page. Great job, Ms. Agnew. I look forward to reading more
from this wonderful author.”
Romance Studio

A water witch, Isabelle Novak has always led a chaotic, nomadic existence. But her life spins out of control when her sister—her only friend and emotional anchor — is killed by a demon. Driven by grief and a desire for revenge, she turns her back on the Coven and the rede they hold sacred: Harm thee none...

When Isabelle first encounters Thomas Monahan, she’s running on pure rage and sorrow, channeling her pain into power — and trying to freeze the life out of a warlock she holds responsible for her sister’s death. Together, they form an uneasy alliance to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power. As head of the Coven, earth witch Thomas must thwart Isabelle’s dark impulses, but his very presence stirs deeper desires she never knew she had…

Buy here! Or here!

I had everything a woman could want.

My husband James. The house on the lake. My life. Our perfect life. And then Alex came to visit. The first time I saw my husband’s best friend, I didn’t like him. Didn’t like how James changed when he was around, didn’t like how his penetrating eyes followed me everywhere. But that didn’t stop me from wanting him. And surprisingly, James didn’t seem to mind.

It was meant to be fun. Something the three of us shared for those hot summer weeks Alex stayed with us. Nobody was supposed to fall in or out of love. I didn’t need another man, not even one who oozed sex like honey and knew all the secrets I didn’t know, the secrets my husband hadn’t shared. After all, we had a perfect life. I loved my husband.

But I wasn’t the only one.

Buy it here or here or here.

Why am I displaying my bad reviews from Amazon.com in this blog? Well, it started over here where John Scalzi posts snippets of his one star reviews from Amazon, then issues a challenge to other authors to do the same. Rachel Caine took it up. See? So, I thought, HEY!, all the cool kids are doing it and it’s not like I don’t have some one star reviews to choose from. Heh.

Bad reviews are part of the writing life. It’s not like I expect everyone who picks up my books to like them. People come to their reading with different perspectives, different life experiences. All that stuff colors their reading of the book. Reviews are opinions, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone is entitled to theirs.

I’m very self-critical, (I’m MUCH harder on myself than anyone else is), so if a negative review is well thought out I almost always find a place to agree with the reviewer. I try to learn from those particular negative reviews and make my next book free of the errors the reviewer has said I’ve made. (However, being human, I probably just make different errors.) A good review will make me smile broadly for two hours. A bad review will make me depressed for two days, but I try to use them as a learning tool.

In the end, bad reviews make the good ones all the sweeter. And luckily I have far more good reviews than bad.

So, with no further ado, here are some of my all time greatest hits from Amazon.com. I didn’t have a whole lot of one star reviews, so I took the two stars too.

Witch Fire

One star — “Not romance, not erotica, basically porn - what little plot there is exists to connect the sex scenes, note I didn’t say love making scenes. Altogether distasteful and I won’t waste money on this author again.”

Two star — “The writing was rather…Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring.”

Two star — “I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down.”

And Lady Makes Three

One star: “I was gullible enough to follow an Amazon recommendation on this one; it turned out to be on of my biggest mistakes. I wish I could give less than a star.”

Blood of the Raven

Two stars — “I would have given this book a 1 except it did have a plot. I like my books a little “steamy” but this is a little hard core for me.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Summer and Autumn

Two stars — “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Winter & Spring

One Star — Style hasn’t improved from the first in the series. “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Anya says — same reviewer as the one above it, obviously. She read the books in the wrong order.

I own these bad reviews. I revel in them. If I could I would turn them into sudsy soap bubbles and take a bath in them. (Er? Did I just say that out loud?) Point is they are part of the glorious trip of being a writer. If you can’t suck it up and accept your bad reviews as part of your journey, then you should get out of this business.

Okay, I’m challenging authors too. Bring out the baddies! Let your Bad Flag fly! I want to see all your one/two star reviews. Own them, babies. Embrace the failure and make it yours.

HUGE congrats to Denise Agnew who finaled in the Passionate Plume Contest! Go Denise! The book she finaled with was Male Call, the first book in her Hot Zone series available from Samhain. I read it and I LOVED it. Woot!

Her sexy letters are his only lifeline in his dangerous world…

Successful computer software engineer Eve Carmichael melts under yet another hotter than hot letter written by Reserve army soldier Sean O’Callahan. Yet Eve can’t take the thought of his life in danger overseas, and she resolves to get a sex life—and a life period. That means forgetting Sean before anything bad can happen to him. To celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, Eve plans a trip to Male Call, a male review club. Still, she worries about Sean. She hasn’t received a letter from him in too many weeks. And oh, how she longs for those flirtatious, hot letters.

Sean finds Eve’s letters to be the only lifeline in his increasingly chaotic world. As their feelings grow hot and heavy, he can’t wait to return home and kindle that pure firepower.

When Eve receives a letter from Sean saying he’s been wounded, her fears are realized. But fate and a little mischievous planning by her friends will serve up the greatest surprise of all.

You can buy it here.

Other books in the series. Aren’t these some HOT covers? Wow!

You can buy them here, here, and the next one here- on sale May 20!

Here’s a new release from more Bradford Bunchers!

Behind closed doors, the real games begin…

Winning it big.

That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’s Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice…and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.

Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.

Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she’s not giving anything away free.

Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind…until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she’s going to pay… with both pleasure and pain.

Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her “friend with benefits.” But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.

Can be purchased here or here.

And last, but certainly not least is Cynthia Eden’s new release! Woot!

In her sexy and suspenseful new novel, Cynthia Eden introduces readers to a seductive world where powerful night creatures ignite dark, dangerous hungers…

Dr. Emily Drake’s patients tend to be a little unusual. Instead of the typical therapist’s caseload of midlife crises and mother fixations, Emily treats vampires with blood phobias and sex-demons looking for meaningful relationships. But her gift for recognizing and healing the Other—those creatures of the night that most humans don’t even know exist—requires a few house rules. First: Never trust a shifter. Especially not one like Detective Colin Gyth whose gold-flecked eyes and predatory air make Emily realize how much she’s been longing to lose control…

Colin can’t believe the doctor he’s been assigned to work with on the Night Butcher murder investigation is the one person who could expose his true identity as a wolf shifter. Smart, sexy, and stubborn as hell, Emily brings out the alpha male in Colin, unleashing a wild, heady desire that takes them both over the edge.

But in the shadows, the Night Butcher waits…eager to spill Emily’s blood and taste her terror. And he’ll use any means to destroy her, including the one person she has grown to trust…

You can buy it here or here.

It all started on Tuesday night with this…

This yummy little thing jumped started a fabulous time in Pittsburgh at RT.  I had a great time.  And can’t complain about one thing.  Not even the fact I had a sore throat. I thought I sounded sexy after that.

The best thing about RT….seeing old friends and making new ones.

My bestest buddy Kimberly Kaye Terry and I.  Good times!

I loved being on the erotic paranormal panel and holding my own on a panel with Caridad Pineiro and JR Ward.  I was nervous as all get out, but managed to get a few laughs.  And from that I sold probably 10 books at the bookfair.   Very cool!

I had a chance to host a big party with my friends the Allure authors, Sylvia Day, Delilah Devlin, Myla Jackson and Sasha White and we signed books to almost 400 people.  It was AWESOME.  And I of course couldn’t resist the marjaritas…

Best of all, I loved hanging out with the ladies of the Bradford Bunch.  Megan, Lauren, Anya (also sexy super agent man) and Ann rocked big time, and of course the lovely Laura Bradford herself.  I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of authors to hang with.  Beautiful and talented–every single one of them.

It was so good that I’m already thinking about next year in Orlando!

Well, I’m finally recovering from RT 2008. By this I mean I’ve unpacked my suitcase, paid some bills and organized (though not cleaned off my desk,) and started to get back into the swing of family life.  You know. Yelling at the kids, doing laundry, generally being the domestic diva I am.

I didn’t feel well at the convention, unfortunately, and I wasn’t alone. But even so, I came back energized, writing-wise. No, I didn’t come up with a brand-new, shiny, full-fledged idea the way I did last year when Lauren and I brainstormed Taking Care of Business while standing in line. (Though we did talk about a followup to that book!) But I did come home with inspiration and ideas for layering some themes into the edits for my current WIP, Switch. 

I finished SWITCH before I left for RT and had planned to let it sit for awhile while I worked on some other things, but while there my mind kept turning back to it. Switch hasn’t been an easy book for me for many reasons. For one, it took me a lot longer to write than usual, partly because I stopped a few times to work on other things and partly because I struggled with the writing of it. I was really glad to have finished the first draft because it meant I could take a break from it, so to discover when I got back from RT that I really wanted to dive back in was…suprising.

Here’s the thing: I take a lot of my work from my life — not things that have happened to me, necessarily, but feelings and emotions and situations that make me THINK about “what if.” I don’t live everything I write about (my goodness, who has time?) but I do…FEEL it. I do feel what I write. Sometimes I feel it first and hold onto that and use it. Sometimes during the writing I start to feel the work, instead, which is also interesting.

I’d had an inkling about what Switch was meant to be for a few months, and it was pretty far from what I’d first anticipated the book to be. In its first incarnation it was a story about dominance and submission, a woman who finds misplaced notes in her mailbox meant for an anonymous person being given increasingly erotic commands. She discovers she likes the content of the notes — craves it, in fact. But when she discovers who the notes are really for, everything changes and she becomes the note WRITER instead of the note receiver.

The book is still “about” that — it’s what happens, anyway. But somewhere along the way a minor, throwaway character became more important, and now he’s an irreplaceable part of the story. I didn’t expect that.

And somewhere, somehow, the book became about choices. The ones we make, good or bad, right or wrong, and how sometimes no matter how much you think you want something, in the end you don’t take it because not having it is better for you. Sometimes, as Paige, the heroine says, you walk away.

So now I have to finish entering all my receipts and put some laundry away and take a shower and have some breakfast, and then I need to crank up the iTunes and get lost in this world again. But you know what?

I feel it.

M

PS — I was so happy to hang with my lurvely agent the glorious Laura Bradford (or LB as I like to call her) and Lauren Dane, Anya Bast and Ann Aguirre and Vivi Anna, and we missed Cynthia! NEXT YEAR IN ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of my favorite photos –

I am incredibly lucky to have Briana St. James as my editor at Ellora’s Cave. Aside from being a great person who is easy to get along with, she makes every one of my books better. Here she offers her insight in worldbuilding in paranormal romances. Enjoy!

Color Your Paranormal World

Briana St. James

Authors often hear about world building in science fiction and fantasy novels. These books need to show a vibrant world instead of the barest bones of a society. Paranormal romance needs an equally colorful world and this is something many new authors fail to achieve. It isn’t enough to take paranormal characters and place them in a world identical to ours without additional details to make the story shine.

Readers and editors want to know what makes your world different and unique from any other paranormal world out there. It isn’t enough to have a vampire hero or a witch heroine, a werewolf clan, or a fairy princess that the reader knows nothing else about. What will pull the reader in are the richly imagined details of your world.

When you create your paranormal characters, there are many things to consider. Before you start writing your book, you may find it helpful to map out the history of your characters. How did they become paranormal? Were they born into this life or created? Is the world known to non-paranormal characters and society world at large? What special powers or enhanced senses do your characters have? Do they think and act differently from the non-paranormal characters in your book? Do they look different, have certain substances or metals that enhance or weaken them, do they have a longer or shorter life span than “normal” characters?

If your vampire can breathe deeply, eat and digest food in addition to blood sustenance, and feels warm to the touch, the reader will want to know how these typical vampire conventions have passed your vampires by. A line inserted here and a couple of tidbits there can go a long way to fleshing out the world.

For shape shifters, your canvas is so much bigger. If one character shifts into a dragon and the other a hummingbird, can they possibly interact well together when in animal form? What are the circumstances in which they shift? Is it voluntary or is the shift dependent upon tides, lunar cycles, or something completely different? And what happens to the clothes a character is wearing when they shift? A nice designer dress could never make it intact through a shift to dragon shape, and that hummingbird would become entangled in the fabric and most likely have a very painful landing.

It is a fine line to create the world without veering into over-description or info dumping. In many cases, a little information goes a long way. Tell the reader that there is a shape shifting clan den or witch coven headquarters without describing everything about that dwelling in detail. Stick to the information the reader needs in order to have a clear and vivid picture of the world without bogging the flow of your story down.

Dynamic world building will help your paranormal romance stand out from the pack. Color your paranormal world brightly!

First off, here are some pictures from the book signing I did Saturday with Debby Giusti and Marjorie Liu.

Here is Debby, Anya, and Marjorie.

Anya & the wonderful bookstoredeb of The Bookstore in Radcliff, KY.

Laurak was there! So was Rhonda! I forgot to have pictures taken with them yet again, though. I fail at photos.

~*~
Goodbye cube farm! Fare thee well…

So, yep, I quit my day job. There are some who would advise me against such a move, I know. Yet, I’ve done it. I’m out. After twelve years of breathing the allergen-laden air of my office building, I finally gave my notice.

I am OUT of there. Hoo, boy. Oh yeah. Freedom!

As of next week I will trade my life of paper pushing for one of full-time writing and stay-at-home momming. And although I just cried freedom, it’s a little scary too. For many years I worked full time, only going part time a couple years ago when my writing income began to be enough to pick up the slack of a loss of twenty hours a week. I went part time to have more time to write and also in anticipation of motherhood.

I liked being part time because it allowed me a foot in steadier waters while giving me time for other things. As Vonna pointed out in her blog this week, writing is anything but predictable work. Most writers don’t make enough to support themselves and need to keep their day jobs, or they need to keep day jobs because they don’t have a spouse who can support them. I do have a spouse to support me, but in my case I just never wanted him to do it. I wanted to bring in enough income to support myself as if I were not married. So I kept my day job long after I could have quit. It took me a long, long time to pry my fingers off it even though a part of me really did want to leave. Those closest to me watched me seesaw back and forth between TO QUIT! or NOT TO QUIT! Yes, that was the question.

A perfect storm of events finally pried my strong grip off the job. A combination of wanting to spend more time with my daughter, events within the company, and my writing career taking off a bit (yay!). But I will miss the days it got me out of the house. I’ll miss doing something in which I can see immediate, practical results. I’ll miss some of the people in my office. I’ll even miss some of the work. But there are lots of things I won’t miss, too. So….

Goodbye long commute! Goodbye nasty grounds in the coffee! Goodbye small gray square of a cubicle. Goodbye bland carpet-covered walls. Goodbye uncomfortable office chair. Goodbye air duct right over my head that had me in sweaters at the height of July.

Goodbye! Goodbye!

I got TEN MILLION copies of What Happens in Vegas… (May, 2008, Harlequin Spice) yesterday. Okay, not ten million, but a whole bunch! I’ll be doing some giveaways soon, so be sure to keep checking back. If you’re not familiar with Vegas, it’s a waaaaaay hot anthology including novellas from me, Lauren Dane, Jodi Lynn Copeland and Kit Tunstall. It’s Harlequin Spice’s first ever anthology.

If you have an established book or review blog that tends to get a good amount of traffic and would like a copy of What Happens in Vegas… please email me via the contact form on my web site and send me your URL and contact info. Depending on how many requests I get, I may have to do a lottery or use some other selection process. I only have a limited number of books I can give away. The only requirement to get a free book is that you blog about the book during the week of its release (first week of May). Your opinion is your own, of course, good or bad.

In other news, for the second week of Witch Blood’s release it placed 22# on Borders bestseller list and 18# on Barnes & Noble’s list! It actually climbed up on the B&N list. Last week it was 24#. It’s also still placing high on Bookscan. This makes me pretty darn happy, I have to say!

Okay, you all, talk to me. What are you reading right now? I’m working my way through some Lisa Kleypas. I’ve had a hankering for historical romance lately.  What’s on your TBR shelf?

Now I have to go!! Deadlines are calling. Eeek!

First of all — Linda is hosting me on her blog this week. You have a chance to win a copy of Witch Blood, so go on over and say hi!

I’m still in deadline hell and it’s crazier than ever. Everything is due at the end of this month, so that means the first week of April I’m on VAYCAY. I’m going to need at least a week to recover from this month’s crazy, hellish deadline stress.

So a few evenings ago it was brought to my attention that my books are being downloaded willy nilly and in great numbers from several pirating web sites and forums. Some people are even asking for “donations” for them. I can’t even express how high my blood pressure went up as I explored these venues, saw how the thieves were scrambling author names and titles in order to avoid detection and read all of the generalizations for their bad behavior.

I hesitated to write about this at all because I don’t want to draw more people to these sites and lose even more money to thievery. Because that’s what it is, plain and simple. Thievery. It’s impossible to rationalize it any other way. I waited a couple days to write about this because it worked me up so badly. The cool off period helped, but now I can feel my blood pressure rising again.

I don’t make a lot of money, folks. When all is said and done, I make the same amount as your average office worker…only without the benefits. I make as much money per year as most of you. Writing isn’t a career that’s going to put you on easy street. For most authors it’s a hobby that provides a little extra pocket money. Writers write because they love it, but I have to say that when I visit these thieving sites it makes me love it a little less.

I sacrifice a lot to write. When my husband has a good movie to watch at night, or a good TV show, usually I can’t watch it with him. I have to use that time in the evenings to write. I lose sleep to write. I miss time with my family to write. I sacrifice time to just relax in order to write. I do all of this for a small amount of money. This is my choice, I know, but to see people just taking my books for free and thinking that it’s okay makes me rethink that choice.

What if you picked up your paycheck at the end of the week and saw that people had taken money out of it? Stolen away hours of your work just because they could? Wouldn’t it make you mad? What people fail to understand is that even a loss of a couple hundred sales to eBook thievery can harm an author’s career. It’s not hurting the publisher, it’s hurting the author.

To any eBook thieves out there — Don’t steal. It’s wrong. There’s no rationalization for it, and I’m not going to waste my time addressing all the excuses I’ve seen for it. Your parents taught you better, I know they did. You should be ashamed of yourself and you know it. Do the right thing, okay? I shouldn’t have to ask.

The bottom line is that if the thievery I saw a couple evenings ago keeps on at that unbelievable rate, there’s not going to be any more authors to steal from.

/End rant

Okay, now on to more amusing things! The winners from my blog post last week are Wendy and Jane!! Congratulations!! Can you please drop me an email at anyabast (at) gmail.com with your snail mail?

Here are all the questions and answers from my last blog here. I’m posting them because you all asked some really good questions!! Thanks for playing, everyone! Now I’m back to my writing deadlines.

Limecello — What’s your favorite thing about writing? And unrelated - has it snowed too much for you this year? Or are you happy with the crazy winter weather?

Anya — My favorite thing about writing is the first draft when I can just turn off my internal editor and let it all flow (well, I get periods of flow, anyway). I love the creation of the characters and the worldbuilding the most.

I love snow!! We have about a foot now and I’m really enjoying it. I just wish they took better care of the roads.

~*~

Jane — I love paranormals and wonder if you have plans to write ghost or psychic stories?

Anya — Well, I do occasionally write characters with psychic abilities. I love ghost stories, but I don’t really have any plans for one at the moment. Just witches and the fae!

~*~

Cathy M — What are you reading now? And what’s your favorite read so far this year?

Anya — I’m reading Happy Hour of the Damned, by Mark Henry right I just finished Lord of Scoundrels, by Loretta Chase, which IJnow. adored. That book is my fav of the year so far. But I also loved Grimspace by our own Ann Aguirre.

~*~

Danette — When you get a break from writing, what do you do to just relax?

Anya — I wish I had more time to just relax! I love to watch movies all curled up with my husband in the evenings. And I love to read for pleasure.

~*~

Estella — What is your favorite genre to read?

Anya — Fantasy and all its subgenres. My absolute favorite author is George R.R. Martin. I know! Not romance. I do read romance, but to truly escape and unwind I guess I need to go outside my chosen genre.

~*~

Wendy — How many books are you thinking of writing for your Witch Series?

Anya — There will be four. I’m just finishing the third right now. After that I’m starting a new series!

Wendy — Are you an outliner?

Anya — Yes, partially. I’m a partial planner. I outline the plot, but leave some wiggle room. The most important part of my preparation for a new novel is to carefully construct the characters. Their personalities and decisions drive the plot.

Wendy — And the most important of all - which of the Supernatural brothers is your favorite?

Anya — LOL! I’ve only watched the first part of Season One. (It’s a lack of time thing.) But, yup, it’s Dean. But, of course!

~*~

Elisabeth Naughton — What do you wish you had known about the publishing world before your first book was released? And what’s the most important thing you’ve learned about the publishing industry since you sold?

Anya — Yasmine Galenorn has a series of posts on her blog that are extremely informative. Go to: and scroll down to the “nuts and bolts” posts. There are three.

Personally, I’ve learned two important things. Er…okay, way more than that, but these two are popping to the forefront of my mind. One, take it slow and easy and enjoy the ride. I do as much advertising and promotion as I possibly, possibly can, but a lot of things are simply out of my hands. Once the book releases, I need to just enjoy it. Let it go. I can’t control how the book sells, ultimately.

Second…(and this is something I have always known, but I’ve watched other authors who haven’t), we’re all expendable. There are lots of writers out there just waiting to slide into the spot of a pain-in-the-ass author. So going all I’m-a-special-snowflake Diva on a publisher is probably not a good idea unless that author is damn sure she’s going to sell like Nora Roberts.

~*~

Pamk — Tell us someting about you that would surprise or shock us.

Anya — Uhm…sometimes I watch the Young and the Restless. Heh. That’s kind of my guilty pleasure.

Pamk — If you were stranded on a deserted isle with the necessitites taken care of what 3 things would you have to have.

Anya — My lap top, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, and a case of diet coke with lime.

~*~

Kim — If you were given $5,000.00 to spend at one store, what store would you choose and what would you be looking for?

Anya — Oh, man! I could have a lot of fun at Sephora with that kind of cash. I love Too Faced cosmetics.

~*~

limecello — How do you feel about daylight savings? Especially with the earlier date?

Anya — Oy! I hate spring forward. I’m screwed up for days and days and I feel like I’ve lost an hour of my life (illusion, I know). I love fall back because you “gain” an hour.

~*~

Shari C — Since you are giving chocolate as part of your prize I have to ask…What is your favorite chocolate?

Anya — I love dark chocolate the best. I’m not a huge fan of any other kind, but I’ll eat it.

Shari C — Also, What do you consider important traits that a hero/heroine must have to be in your books.

Anya — The hero and the heroine first have to be compelling to me (’cuz otherwise I don’t have any interest in writing them), and they also have to “fit” each other–have chemistry. I like to pair opposites because they usually each bring something to the relationship that the other lacks.

Shari C — How to you pick the names for your characters?

Anya — I don’t know how I pick names! I wish I did. The process is waaay mysterious. LOL. Mostly they just pop into my head. (Okay, maybe that’s not very mysterious.) I only change names if I have several names in one story that start with the same letter. Otherwise, I keep them just the way they popped into my head.

~*~

Virginia H. — I love historicals. Do you plan on writing any historicals in the future or do you have any that you have already written?

Anya — I only have historical fantasy and those aren’t really based in any actual historical fact. I just use history for flavoring. I love to read historical romance, but I haven’t written any. Maybe one day! You never know.

~*~

RobynL — Are you a ‘cup half full’ person or a ‘cup half empty’ type?

Anya — I would say I’m “realistic”. LOL. Some of my family and friends would call me pessimistic. I guess I like to keep my expectations low. That way if something super great happens, it’s a really nice surprise.

~*~

ReadingIsSoMuchFun — If you could have one paranormal ability, what would it be and why?

Anya — Flying!

Readingissomuchfun — When you are writing do you listen to music, watch TV or do you need it to be completely quiet?

Anya — I can’t watch TV at all, far too distracting. I like to listen to music because sometimes it helps me get into the mood of a scene, but I have to keep the volume down very low.

~*~

limecello — Going along with the chocolates theme - do you have a favorite food/fruit/dessert?

Anya — My favorite dessert is either a soapilla at our local Mexican restaurant, or a crème brulee. YUM. I like chocolate covered vanilla ice cream cones at the height of summer too.

I have Deadline Brain and Book Release Brain right now, which means I don’t have a lot of juice left for meaningful blogging.

In consideration of my current juiceless state, I’m opening this up to questions today. Ask me anything you’d like, (however I reserve the right to not answer any uber-personal questions, of course)! I’ll be around all day (and all week) and will answer your questions progressively in the comment section.

I like to give away chocolate and bath yummies, so I will pick two winners from the commentors by random drawing and announce them the next time I blog here.

Ask away!